Every electrical contractor makes inventory mistakes. The difference between a profitable operation and one that's bleeding money often comes down to whether those mistakes get fixed—or keep repeating.
After talking to dozens of contractors about their cable yards, the same problems keep coming up. Here are the seven most common mistakes and what to do about them.
1 Not Tracking Footage—Only Reels
A reel of 12/2 Romex is not a unit. The reel could have 1,000 feet or 50 feet—treating them the same way makes your inventory meaningless.
The problem: Your spreadsheet says you have 8 reels of 10/3. But one has 1,200 feet, three have 400 feet each, and four have less than 100 feet. You actually have about 2,600 feet—not "8 reels" worth.
This matters most when you're bidding jobs. If you think you have enough cable based on reel count, you might commit to a job and then realize you need to order more. That emergency order costs extra, and the delay costs you time.
The fix: Track footage, not just reels. Every time cable comes off or goes on a reel, update the count. It takes an extra 10 seconds but makes your inventory actually useful.
2 Letting "I'll Log It Later" Become Never
Your foreman pulls 200 feet of cable at 6 AM, thinking he'll update the inventory when he gets to the office later. But later never comes. The job runs long, he forgets, and the inventory is wrong from that point forward.
This compounds quickly. One forgotten transaction becomes three becomes ten, and suddenly nobody trusts the numbers at all.
The fix: Make logging instant. Mobile apps, QR codes, anything that lets your team update inventory on the spot—before they walk away from the reel. If it takes more than 30 seconds, they won't do it.
3 No Check-Out/Check-In System
Cable leaves your yard every day. Without a record of who took it, where it went, and when, you have no accountability and no way to track down missing reels.
The problem: A reel of expensive 500 MCM disappears. Was it stolen? Did it go to a job and not come back? Is it sitting in someone's truck? Without a check-out log, you'll never know.
Check-out systems aren't about distrust—they're about information. When you know where every reel is, you can find it when you need it.
The fix: Log every departure and return. Reel ID, who took it, which job, how much footage. When it comes back, log the return and update the remaining footage. Simple accountability.
4 Storing Partial Reels Without Labels
A job finishes with 150 feet of cable left over. The crew throws it in the back of the yard with the other partial reels. Next month, someone needs 150 feet of that same cable but buys new because they can't find the leftover—or don't know it exists.
Partial reels are where money goes to hide. They're too valuable to throw away but too easy to forget about.
The fix: Label every partial reel with its contents and footage. Better yet, keep partial reels in a designated area and track them in your inventory system. When someone needs cable, they check partials first.
5 Multiple Versions of the Truth
The office has a spreadsheet. The yard manager has a clipboard. The foreman has a notebook. Each one says something different about what's in stock.
The problem: The office thinks there's 800 feet of 6/3. The yard manager counted 500 last week. The foreman is sure he used the last of it yesterday. Who's right? Nobody knows—and nobody can make a decision without checking physically.
Multiple tracking systems create confusion, waste time, and inevitably fall out of sync. You need one source of truth that everyone updates and everyone trusts.
The fix: One system. Cloud-based so everyone can access it. When the foreman updates from the job site, the office sees it instantly. No more conflicting records.
6 No Low-Stock Alerts
You run out of cable and don't realize it until someone needs it for a job. Now you're making an emergency order, paying rush shipping, and delaying work.
Running out of common cable is embarrassing. Running out of specialty cable that has a two-week lead time is expensive.
The fix: Set minimum thresholds for each cable type. When inventory drops below the threshold, get an alert. Order before you run out, not after. This turns emergency orders into routine restocks.
7 Not Tracking Cable by Job
You know you spent $150,000 on cable last year. But which jobs used the most? Which foreman consistently goes over material estimates? Which project types have the highest material costs?
The problem: Without job-level tracking, you can't identify patterns. Maybe one type of job consistently runs 20% over on materials. Maybe one crew is more efficient than others. You'll never know if you're not measuring.
Job costing isn't just for accountants. It's how you learn which work is profitable and which is eating your margins.
The fix: Tag every cable pull to a job. At the end of the project, you'll know exactly how much material went in. Compare to your bid, identify the variance, and adjust future estimates accordingly.
Stop Making These Mistakes
CableStock tracks footage, logs check-outs, alerts you before you run out, and shows you exactly where your cable is going.
Start Your Free TrialThe Cost of Not Fixing These Problems
Each of these mistakes costs money. But the costs are often invisible—they show up as higher material expenses, wasted labor time, or missed opportunities rather than a line item on a bill.
Consider a medium-sized electrical contractor with $2 million in annual revenue:
- Emergency orders: Running out of cable twice a month, with $200 extra per rush order = $4,800/year
- Duplicate purchases: Buying cable you already have, once a quarter at $500 each = $2,000/year
- Lost/forgotten reels: One partial reel per month goes missing or forgotten = $3,000/year
- Wasted labor: Crews hunting for cable or making extra trips, 2 hours/week = $5,000/year
- Poor estimates: Consistently under-bidding materials on certain jobs = variable, but potentially $10,000+/year
That's $25,000 or more in preventable losses. For a $2 million contractor, that's over 1% of revenue going to inventory problems.
Where to Start
You don't have to fix all seven problems at once. Start with the one that costs you the most:
- If you're constantly buying cable you already have, focus on consolidating to one tracking system
- If reels keep disappearing, implement a check-out log
- If your estimates are always off, start tracking cable by job
- If you're making emergency orders, set up low-stock alerts
Each fix builds on the others. Once you have one system everyone uses, adding check-out tracking is easy. Once you're tracking check-outs, adding job tagging is just one more field.
The goal isn't perfection—it's progress. Every mistake you stop making puts money back in your pocket.